Best Spaghetti Sauce Ever

Now that fall is approaching and the mornings and evenings are cooler it's time for hearty home cooked meals. One that I made over the weekend was a huge batch of spaghetti sauce that I can freeze and heat up for quick dinners later. I have tried many different recipes but this one is so far my favorite! It combines different meats, veggies and best of all wine!

Meat Sauce (adapted eat.live.run) 

1.5 lbs ground grass fed beef 

.5 lbs Italian chicken sausage

.5lbs of pork sausage

20 oz sliced mushrooms

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 yellow onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1.5 tbsp olive oil

1 28-oz can tomato puree

1 12-oz can tomato paste

24 oz tomato sauce

BIG splash red wine (anywhere from 1/2 cup to 2 cups)

6 oz freshly grated Romano cheese

1 tbsp dried oregano

1 tbsp dried basil

1 bay leaf

1-2 tbsp sugar

garlic salt + pepper as needed

spaghetti noodles + additional grated cheese for serving

Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Once hot, add the onion, bell peppers and sliced mushrooms. Saute for about six – eight minutes, until mushrooms are soft. Add ground beef and sausage meat. Cook until meat browns, stirring frequently with a large rubber spatula.

Add tomato puree, tomato sauce and tomato paste to the pot. Stir well. Then, add the bay leaf, wine, spices, sugar and cheese. Stir well and bring sauce to a simmer.

Simmer sauce for an hour and a half over low heat, stirring occasionally. Taste it as you cook, adding more wine, spices or garlic salt to suite your taste buds. The longer the sauce cooks, the better it will taste!

Football is back

Football season has started again which means football food. I usually try and healthify the dishes but this time I did not. (shame on me I know) Nothing says football like wings, so that's what I made!

I usually bake them in the oven but this time I tried the frying route. Started with heating the oil to 350 using my dutch oven.

Rinsed and dried the wings.

Then dropped them in batches into the hot oil.

Waited for them to rise to the top and then out they came back on the cookie sheet to cool.

We went with 2 flavors regular buffalo and Parmesan garlic. I poured the wing sauce into containers and then added the wings and shook. = best method ever!

As you can see most of them were buffalo flavor.
The complete spread:

We also had corn on the cob and of course you can't have wings without celery and carrots.

Mexican chicken stuffed peppers

It has been a crazy week both John and I have been really busy and not getting home until late. I didn't have time to go grocery shopping this week so I was trying to make the best of the leftovers. I think I mentioned this on here before but John hates leftovers. He says he doesn't like eating the same thing twice (he's weird, but he'll eat sandwiches multiple days for dinner?!).
He also hates sloppy joes which I really enjoy (they were a staple growing up). This I don't really understand because its ground beef with ketchup, peppers and onions all of which he likes. We have had multiple conversations about this until yesterday afternoon he realized he was mixing up shepherd's pie with sloppy joes. (it's ok, I still love him) I told him he doesn't have to worry because shepherds pie involved mash potatoes so I'll never make that.

Anyways, back to dinner since he prefers not to eat leftovers I have been getting better these last few weeks at repurposing leftovers. aka - shredded Mexican stuffed peppers.

I used the shredded chicken I made the other day, here.

And stuffed them into the green peppers my family brought me from their garden.

After they were done cooking I sprinkled a little cheese on top and baked a few minutes longer.

Lettuce Taco wraps- Take 2

The 2nd variety comes everyones favorite white meat chicken!  I borrowed this recipe from Eat.Live Run.
It was super easy and minimum clean up involved.

Start with a slower cooker and add the following:

• 1.5 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breast coated in taco seasoning

• Next cut up a yellow onion and jalapeno and add them on top (I would de-seed the jalapeno if you don't want it to spicy)

• Next add a jar of your favorite salsa, any heat you like but remember it will get hotter as it cooks. I learned this lesson the hard way. 

• Then cook on high for 4 hours, when done pull the chicken out and shred it. 

• The shredded chicken goes back in the slower cooker and get mixed in with the salsa mixture.

Once heated and mixed together, enjoy with tortillas or for a healthier version butter lettuce leaves.

Chicken and kale

This weekend was a wonderful weekend full of baby Ella, and family. Sunday we came home early so I could catch up on laundry, cleaning and errand running that hasn't been done in weeks! John is gone again this week so dinners will be easy again.

Sunday I made roasted chicken and kale for dinner. John for what ever reason loves this dish (maybe he doesn't know kale is healthy?). It's super easy to make and only dirties 1 pot can't get simpler then that!

Here is what you'll need ingredient wise:

• organic chicken (leg and thigh bone in pieces)
• 1 big clove of garlic
• 1 bunch of kale
• 1 can of no salt added diced tomatoes
• 14oz of no salt added chicken broth 
• evoo
• 1/2 c flour
• salt & pepper

Start by salt and peppering the chicken then shake it around in the flour. Next add a little evoo to your pot (you'll want to use a deep pot) and brown your chicken about a min or so each side.

Remove the chicken and set aside add a little more evoo if needed to the pan and add the garlic and sautee for 30 sec then add the kale in batches until it wilts. 

Next add the tomatoes and chicken broth and bring to a boil.

Once boiling add the chicken back in and bake in the oven at 325 for about 1.5 hrs.

There is not to much to it, just a bit of waiting time! The chicken falls off the bone! I served our with a little brown rice.

I'll be eating the leftovers this week.

I Can't walk

Between crossfit and going to the chiropractor I had my butt beat this week. Let's just say that stairs and I are no longer friends and I have become very close with the handicap bathrooms and that nice little bar they put beside the toilet. I know they installed it there for people like me who abuse their bodies with squats, push ups, and pull ups and can no longer use the muscles in their legs to sit on normal toilets.

On to food this week it hasn't been pretty folks, I am ashamed to even be putting these food items on here. I haven't been getting home until 8pm on crossfit nights and I am not home before hand to prepare anything so that doesn't leave much time for cooking food.

So this week I went back to meals before I learned how to cook and ate these twice for dinner.

I had bought these at whole foods and thought they sounded ok for pre-made chicken patties. I was wrong they are not so good, my original plan was to make sweet potato fries with them and douse them in ketchup. But when I went to cut up the potato it looked gross inside.

It started to grow white things and other nasty things I won't mention. So I went with plan B and made a 1/2 cup whole wheat pasta with sauce.

Edible but I will definitely not buy these again (the chicken burgers that is not the pasta). I heart pasta. I think I will make my own turkey burgers and freeze them for quick meals.

Last night the only thing we had to eat for dinner was condiments, so John and I hit up Not Your Average Joe's and I ordered the peach keen chicken.

Here it is half eaten but holy cow was this good! It was grilled chicken topped with peach and avocado salsa all on top of sweet potato steak fries. I really really need to recreate this at home, I thought I died and gone to  heaven.

This weekend we have plans to travel to NYC via the Fung wah bus (which is way scary) we are staying with John's friend Brad and have tickets on Saturday to see The Book of Mormon.

See you from NYC!

To much to do and not enough time

It has been crazy here. Here are some pictures from what I have been up to,  4th of July fireworks on a roof top deck and spent with family.

Chicken many different ways, roasted with kale and tomoatoes.

Leftovers of the roasted chicken stuffed into biscuits to make turnovers.

turkey panini's with avocado, tomatoes, and brie cheese.

A day trip to the Boston Harbor Island's

Timmy's going away party.

And lastly a much needed date night.